1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer using thermal recording technology, for example, and, particularly, relates to a printer which can print on both a recording sheet for a label on a base sheet (hereinafter called label paper) and normal recording paper (hereinafter called plain paper) as a recording medium.
2. Related Art
Heretofore, work for sticking on commodities a label on which a bar code showing the price of a product, a destination of delivery and so on are printed, is performed in a store, a physical distribution center and others. Recently, a portable small-sized printer for issuing such a label has been proposed.
FIG. 7 is a schematic drawing showing the internal constitution of a conventional type printer for issuing a label.
As shown in FIG. 7, roll label paper 103 in which plural labels 102 are stuck on a base sheet 101 is loaded into a printer 100. A thermal head 106 is attached to a printer cover 105 which can be opened or closed against a printer body 104. The printer 100 is constituted so that the thermal head 106 presses the label paper 103 against a platen roller 107 when the printer cover 105 is closed, and predetermined printing is performed on the label 102.
A contact member 108 is provided over the platen roller 107 and the base sheet 101 of the label paper 103 is bent when pressed against the platen roller 107 by a pressing roller 109 provided on the end of the printer cover 105. Owing to such constitution, when the label paper 103 is fed after printing, the base sheet 101 and the label 102 are separated because of the rigidity of the label 102 and the label 102 is ejected from an ejection port 110 provided in the printer cover 105. In the meantime, the base sheet 101 of the label paper 103 is ejected from another ejection port formed at the front of the printer body 104.
The printer 100 can also print on rolled plain paper not shown instead of the above label paper 103, and in that case, printed plain paper is ejected from the ejection port 110 of the printer cover 105.
However, the conventional type printer 100 constituted as described above has the following problems.
That is, a printer provided with a mechanism for separating the above label has a problem that when plain paper is set, the leading end of the plain paper is required to be passed through the ejection port 110 of the printer cover 105 and the work is very troublesome and causes waste of time in setting the plain paper roll.
An object of the present invention is to solve such problems of prior art and to facilitate setting of plain paper as well as label paper in a printer which can print on both plain paper and label paper.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer capable of printing a recording medium including a base sheet and at least one label sheet detachably adhered thereon, comprising: a print head and platen opposing each other for printing the recording medium; a printer housing for housing said print head and platen; an ejection port, provided on said printer housing, from which the recording medium is ejected after having been printed by said print head and platen; and a separator for curving the base sheet ejected from said ejection port to separate the leading edge of the label sheet from the base sheet.
According to the present invention, a transportation path is provided through which the base sheet is curved by the separator after the recording medium printed by the print head and the platen is ejected from the ejection port. Thus, the plain paper which does not require use of the separator can be directly received from the ejection port. Thus, the plain paper can be set more easily without threading the separator.
In this case, it is preferable to employ a contact member arranged on the ejection port and at a platen side of the ejection port and a guide member for guiding the base sheet downstream of said contact member to be curved by said contact member.
In this situation, it is preferable that the guide member is movably provided so as to be released from the separating position where the guide member, in cooperation with the contact member, curves the recording medium to separate the leading edge of the label sheet.
When a recording medium is set, the separator is arranged in a predetermined standby position with the print head and the platen arranged opposite, and the label paper is carried and then positioned. After then, when the guide member is moved to a pressing position, the base sheet of the label paper as the recording medium is curved by the contact member. Therefore, if the label paper is further carried in the above arrangement, the leading edge of the label sheet is naturally separated from the base sheet because of the rigidity of the label sheet.
Further, it is preferable to provide the guide member with a roller for transporting the base sheet. Thus, the function of the guide member namely that the base sheet is transported in a curved manner by means of the contact member is facilitated.
Moreover, in this condition, it is preferable to provide a detector for detecting the label sheet and a driver for moving the guide member, such that the driver moves the guide member to the separating position in accordance with detection of the label sheet by the detector.
According to the present invention, the recording medium set up operation is performed automatically and smoothly. Thus facilitating the operability or the printer.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer capable of printing a recording medium including a base sheet and at least one label sheet detachably adhered thereon comprising: a print head and platen opposing each other for printing the recording medium; a first printer housing for housing the platen; a second printer housing movably connected to the first printer housing for housing the print head; an ejection port, defined at the border of the first and second printer housings, from which the recording medium is ejected after having been printed by the print head and platen; and a separator for curving the base sheet ejected from the ejection port to separate the leading edge of the label sheet from the base sheet.
In this case, it is preferable to provide the separator on the first printer housing. And, it is further preferable that the separator comprises a contact member arranged on the ejection port and at platen side of said ejection port and a guide member for guiding the base sheet downstream of said contact member to be curved by said contact member. The contact member is preferably arranged on the first printer housing, and the guide member is movably mounted on the second housing. It is also effective that the above platen is provided on one printer housing, while the above print head and a head controller for controlling the operation of the print head are provided inside the other housing.
As a result, the print head and the head controller are arranged inside the same printer housing, wiring can be completed without passing a movable part and hereby, the wiring of the print head can be facilitated. In addition, if the print head and the head controller are arranged closely, wiring for the print head can be shortened and, hereby, the effect of electric noise upon the print head can be reduced and the cost of the wiring for the head can also be reduced.
Further, according to one embodiment of the present invention, since a print head and a head controller can be connected with wiring extended inside a main printer housing and in addition, wiring for the head can be constituted without passing a movable part, a destruction of the wiring to the print head due to a frequent bending can be avoided.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, since the print head is provided inside the main printer housing and foreign matter such as dust hardly invades in its driving part, there is also a merit that the print head can be kept durable.
It is also effective that a print head is provided on one printer housing, while a platen also serving as a transportation roller and a driving mechanism for applying driving force thereto are provided on the other printer housing and a printer is constituted so that recording paper is carried by driving the platen.
In this case, as the platen and its driving mechanism are provided on the same main printer housing, driving force can be applied to the platen while keeping the platen and the driving mechanism in the same positional relationship, as a result of which the platen can be always stably driven and thus recording paper can be precisely transported.
Also, according to the present invention, since the opening and closing of a printer cover has no effect upon a transmission of a driving mechanism, recording paper can be precisely transported in a long term.